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Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology B.A.LL.B - B.A.LL.B. (Honours) SAL1603 Legislative Drafting Syllabus

Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology School of Law

SAL1603 LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING
L T P Credit Total Marks
3 1 0 3 100

UNIT 1 – DRAFTING – AN OVERVIEW 9 Hrs.
Legislative Drafting as a science and an art - The scope of Legislative drafting – Its importance in the law making
process - Forms of Legislative instruments: Bills, Acts, Ordinances, Orders, Rules, Circulars and Formal constitutions -
Qualities of good drafting: Simplicity, Preciseness, Consistency, Clarity, Brevity, Certainty, Alignment with existing law,
Effectiveness.

UNIT 2 – JURISPRUDENCE 9 Hrs.
Materials and Preliminaries: Study of analogous legislations that exist in other countries or in other parts of the
country - Legislation that already exists on the subject - Study of judicial decisions – Constitutional law issues – International
treaties

UNIT 3 – CLASSIFICATION OF STATUTES 9 Hrs.
Constitutional statutes – Taxing statutes –Penal statutes – Statutes dealing with local government – Statutes
dealing with particular corporations- Statutes dealing with personal law – Statutes in the nature of law reforms – Statutes
dealing with procedure of the courts – Social security statutes – Repealing and Amending statutes

UNIT 4 – THE MECHANISM OF AN ACT 9 Hrs.
Introduction– Various parts of a statute – long title – Preamble – Enacting clause – Short title – Extent and application
– Commencement clause – Exceptions and exemptions – Principal provisions – Procedural provisions – Penal provisions –
Provisions regarding delegated legislation – Enforcement machinery contemplated by the statute – Temporary provisions -
Repeal and Saving clauses – Punctuations – Marginal notes- Provisons – Illustrations – Presumptions – Retrospective
Operation – Removal of difficulty clause – Fictions – Explanations.

UNIT 5 – LACUNAE IN DRAFTING 9 Hrs.
Absurdity – Unenforceability- Vagueness- Exclusion of Judicial Review- Use of protection clauses– Conclusive
evidence clause- Chronology of the process in Parliament – Rules of composition for legislative drafting. Max. 45 Hours

COURSE OUTCOMES:
On completion of the course the student will be able to
CO1: This course describes the nature of legislative drafting in the parliamentary tradition and explains the duties and
responsibilities of legislative counsel.
CO2: Trains the students to apply the basic principles of legislative syntax and expression for writing legislative sentences.
CO3: Helps to comply with standard drafting conventions while writing legislative sentences.
CO4: This course makes the students to compose simple legislative sentences that are unambiguous and free from common
errors of expression.
CO5: Convert simple instructions into legislative sentences that are comprehensive and clear.
CO6: This course will equip the students with the required professional skills

TEXT / REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Indian Law Institute, The Drafting of Laws (1980).
2. Vepa P. Sarathi, Interpretation of Statutes (second Edition ).
3. Thomson G.C. Legislative Drafting, Butterworth’s, London.
4. Zander, M., The Law Making Process, Widenfeld and Nicholson, England.
5. K.Sanmukham and N.S. Bindras, Interpretation of Statutes (1997). The Law Book Co. Allahabad

END SEMESTER EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER PATTERN
Max. Marks:100 Exam Duration: 3 Hrs.
PART A: 6 Questions to be answered out of 8 questions and each question carries 5 Marks 30 Marks
PART B: 4 questions to be answered out of 8 questions (Internal Choice) and each question carries 10 Marks 40 Marks
PART C: 2 Questions to be answered out of 4 questions and each carries 15 marks 30 Marks